Do empowered employees absorb knowledge?

Impact of qualified gatekeepers on team absorptive capacity: the mediating role of knowledge combination capability

Purpose

This study aims to examine direct effects of qualified team gatekeepers on absorptive capacity (AC), and the mediating roles of combinative capabilities – knowledge integration capability (KIC) and interteam coordination.

Design/methodology/approach

A social networking analysis was used to analyze a unique data set collected from all members of 32 Japanese research and development (R&D) teams to identify key individuals who perform daily gatekeeping functions. This study analyzed the data through partial least squares structural equation modeling with higher-order latent variables. Finally, cross-validation tests were used with holdout samples to test the model’s predictive validity.

Findings

Qualified gatekeepers directly contribute to teams’ realized AC but not to their potential AC. Furthermore, qualified gatekeepers can improve their teams’ capability to absorb and exploit external knowledge by facilitating their capability to consolidate knowledge, that is, its KIC and interteam coordination.

Originality/value

Unlike prior research that asks top managers to identify team gatekeepers, this study used social network analysis to identify these vital individuals. This study provides a new framework indicating how qualified gatekeepers impact the AC of R&D teams through the examination of both the direct and indirect paths of gatekeeping abilities, two combinative capabilities as mediators and team AC.

Impact of psychological empowerment on job performance of Chinese university faculty members: A cross-sectional study

As knowledge workers, faculty members are pivotal for the sustainable development of universities. We explored the psychological empowerment–job performance relationship with 216 faculty members of a Chinese university. Participants completed two self-report scales that have been shown to have adequate reliability and validity, which were used to assess psychological empowerment and job performance. The results show there was a significant positive correlation between psychological empowerment and job performance, such that each psychological empowerment dimension was positively correlated with each job performance dimension. Our findings highlight the importance of the psychological empowerment of university faculty members, because it is necessary for their professional development, and as the driving force for sustainable development of universities, they can contribute toward promoting academic productivity.

Empowering leadership and job performance: mediating role of psychological empowerment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to check the effects of empowering leadership on job performance of employees through the mediation of psychological empowerment.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data were gathered from 418 Indian banking employees. Statistical techniques like factor analysis, multiple regressions and bootstrapping via PROCESS were used to analyze the data.

Findings

Initially, the results of multiple regression analysis revealed that empowering leadership behaviors have positive influence on psychological empowerment and job performance of subordinates. Further, bootstrap analysis revealed that the individual dimensions of psychological empowerment serially mediate the effects of empowering leadership behaviors on subordinates’ job performance.

Research limitations/implications

The study indicates that the empowering leadership style is not applicable to Western culture only, but it is also very effective in high power distance cultures like of India. The major limitation of the study is that the data have been gathered from a single source. This may lead to common method variance.

Practical implications

In banking context, empowering leadership can improve the performance of employees by means of psychological empowerment. Training should be provided to organizational leaders in banks with special focus on facilitating the empowering behaviors among them.

Originality/value

The research studies on measuring the effects of empowering leadership on job performance through mediation of psychological empowerment are very limited.

Microlevel antecedents of absorptive capacity in joint project engineering teams

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the micro-level antecedents of absorptive capacity (ACAP) based on the multilevel perspective of learning capabilities in asymmetric joint project engineering teams constituted by local employees and expatriates.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors integrated the micro-foundational and multilevel learning theories to delineate the individual and team dimensions of ACAP. Using structural equation modelling, the authors tested the hypothesized relationships among the underlying individual determinants and multilevel dimensions of ACAP. The data were collected from a sample of 248 local employees from 76 joint project engineering teams in the Nigerian upstream oil industry.

Findings

ACAP entails individual and team capabilities, which depend on prior experience and need for cognition. The creation of shared understanding is essential for the transition of an individual’s knowledge assimilation capability into team’s knowledge utilization capability.

Originality/value

This study contributes to extant understanding of the multilevel perspective of learning capabilities, i.e. ACAP in a knowledge intensive team like joint project engineering.

Authentic leadership, work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors in petroleum company

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between authentic leadership (AL), work engagement (WE), and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) among United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals working in the petroleum sector. This study further intends to examine the mediating effect of psychological empowerment (PE) on above mentioned relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

– Quantitative method involving self-reported questionnaire was used in this study. Data were collected from 189 UAE national employees from one of the major petroleum companies in the UAE. An extensive online questionnaire consisting of 70 questions was designed in Version 2.05+ of LimeSurvey, an open source-based survey tool. Structural equation modeling using Lisrel was deployed to examine the relationship between AL, PE, WE, and OCB.

Findings

– The results revealed that AL significantly increases WE and OCB. Results also indicated that PE increases the strength of relationship between AL with WE and OCB while acting as a mediator.

Practical implications

– The research results suggested that leaders and discussion makers in the petroleum sector in UAE should encourage their managers to adopt a more AL style. Given that AL is strongly related to WE, PE, and OCB, AL training programs is consequently important in building employees that would be more empowered and engaged.

Originality/value

– This study contributes to organizational behavior and industrial psychology literature. The study is unique in respect to the research model that was developed and validated. It’s one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the direct relationship among AL, PE, WE, and OCB in Middle-East context. This study was conducted in UAE, where AL concept has been rarely investigated and finding from this study may help in filling up the gap in knowledge.